Today is Friday 7th of August and we are perched on the shores of Lake Garda (actually parked in a camper van car park but my first sentence needed the drama).
We have abandoned our beautiful grandson to the tender care of his totally capable parents, I didn’t realise how hard that would be, packed Vanley with all the essentials, a band saw, a selection of impact drills, two enormous blinds and 4 cubic cm of space for Sunny to sit, hopped on the channel tunnel and here we are.
We arrived in Peschiera del Garda at 3.30 today, I think we have come here because we drove 500 miles for R to buy shoes here last trip. (He pointed out the shop as we passed). We left the UK at 2.30am yesterday intent on spending our first night in Colmar, when we arrived the campsite was full, I wouldn’t spend the extra 15 euro to pre book so I am totally responsible. We decided to continue driving and look for an Aire to stay in but got a bit carried away until R had been driving for 18 hours, by which time we were in Switzerland and halfway up a mountain. I have an app (several actually) that shows us where we can park up and we found the most breathtaking spot to spend the night. We were in a valley at the base of sheep mountain, the sun was setting and the mountain was pink it was so beautiful we almost forgot to be tired. The guy in charge was the only Swiss national to laugh – at us as we unloaded the saw…..
Several gins later we hardly noticed the bells ringing every hour and the chickens at sunrise.
The drive today from Switzerland to Italy was spectacular, winding roads and precipices, cow bells and chalets. Switzerland is slightly more beautiful aesthetically than Italy but there is a little something missing, it is organised and calm, the roads are perfect, the people are helpful and polite but they don’t smile, there is no passion. Italy on the other hand has tons of passion and everyone smiles. You do need nerves of steel to drive on Italian roads, luckily I’m not the driver!